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Saturday, April 11, 2015

Aerial Game of Thrones plays out between falcons from Lincoln's State Capitol and Omaha's Woodmen Tower

The beautiful art-deco Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, among its many attractions, hosts a Peregrine Falcon nesting box lorded over by "19K."
Omaha's Woodmen of the World Tower also has a nesting box, ruled by "Mintaka."
Both nesting boxes have webcams. Last February, 19K flew 60 miles north to Omaha, to the nesting box of Mintaka, his son. According to Matthew Hansen, of the Omaha World-Herald,

19K was not there to give Mintaka advice about being a dad. He was not there to slip him $20 for gas. He was there to rumble.

Below is the March 7th engagement of what was thought to be a running battle lasting weeks:

Added reporter Hansen, who interviewed Joel Jorgensen, a program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission:

In one way, the battle is epic, positively Shakespearean, especially when you know that even wildlife experts are helpless to explain why Lincoln’s established male falcon would fly to Omaha and try to murder his son. “It boggled my mind, honestly,” Jorgensen says.

The Woodmen of the World Tower, Omaha's second tallest building, was, of course the starring edifice in Alexander Payne's best film, About Schmidt, which got Jack Nicholson a Golden Globe and and Oscar nomination.

Maynard (Bob "Gilligan's Island" Denver) slyly flashes a nipple to the CBS eye while trying to talk his best buddy Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hick­man) into taking off all his clothes. Whoever said 1950s television was a vast waste­land obviously didn't know where to look.